


yes, I'm back (in black)

by charlie_mou



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 80's Music, Basically Steve listens to hard rock and punk, Billy Hargrove Is Smitten, Gen, M/M, No beta we die like dyslexic with social anxiety, Post-Season/Series 02, Steve Harrington-centric, Tongue Piercings, bc I said so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23075254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlie_mou/pseuds/charlie_mou
Summary: It's coming from the speakers in the shop and Steve asks the guy behind the counter what is playing. He looks at Steve - who is wearing a pastel blue polo shirt and khaki shorts and gazes at him with wide innocent eyes - and smirks. Steve will remember for years the Scorpions patch on his jean vest and the way he says, "This, my little guy, is AC/DC."Or Steve falls in love with hard rock and punk even though everyone thinks he shouldn't. Well, everyone except Billy.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Steve Harrington/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 225





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the most self-indulgent thing I've written in my life, I've been basically projecting on Steve so much. I wrote it while pissed off at my father and his recent _it's not proper music for a girl_ and _couldn't you buy a dress instead of another leather jacket_ I had to listen to this week during a video call. Honestly, I was just pissed off.
> 
> The title comes from Back in Black. Btw, if you notice some songs that are out of timeline, ignore it please, I tried to check the stuff (I realized at some point I used Metallica's St. Anger and it's from the 2000s so I edited it out but-) but I listen to music from the 70s-90s mostly and never cared about the decade.  
>    
> It's the first harringrove fic I'm posting, so be gentle.
> 
> Btw, you can read it as a finished fic no matter on what chapter you finish.

Steve's mom is Italian and listens mostly to Italian music - pop and some classical music and opera and all the stuff Steve never cared about. When his dad is at home, she listens to music in English - _we're Americans, for god's sake, we have to speak English_ \- mostly pop and country because she still has trouble with understanding lyrics in English. When dad is home, her favorite singer is Dolly Parton but she listens to Top 100 on the radio when she cooks - _if_ she cooks, she's terrible at it, Steve knows she's more of a trophy wife, even if she's an okay mother - Steve spends time with her listening to Fleetwood Mac, Micheal Jackson, ABBA, Stevie Nicks. His dad hates it even more because it's _low_ music, not worth people of their status.

Steve doesn't hate pop, never has. He finds it easy to sing along or dance, everyone knows it so it's an easy conversation starter. He doesn't love it either, he's always thought music is very blunt and boring. Well, up until he's thirteen and Steve finds out there's a type of music his dad hates even more than pop.

It's summer of 1980 and Steve is wandering around the record shop. Tommy wants music tapes for his birthday, The Police's album, and Steve agreed even though he hates going to music shops. The Police is not the worst band to listen to and it's nice enough for singing along.

It's the first time he listens to AC/DC.

It's the _Back in Black_ album that came out a month before and Steve finds it rhythmic and refreshing and so mesmerizing. It's coming from the speakers in the shop and Steve asks the guy behind the counter what is playing. He looks at Steve - who is wearing a pastel blue polo shirt and khaki shorts and gazes at him with wide innocent eyes - and smirks. Steve will remember for years the Scorpions patch on his jean vest and the way he says, "This, my little guy, is AC/DC."

Steve leaves the record shop with six tapes and not one of them has The Police on it. AC/DC, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, Aerosmith, Van Halen. Steve discovers he prefers hard rock but his taste is as weird as it's always been with the difference that now he has actual music he likes.

It takes over a year for Steve's father to catch up with his music taste.

Steve keeps his tapes to himself - Tommy told him AC/DC sounds like potts banging and Carol said she can't sing to Scorpions - Steve calls bull on the, he's never had a problem. So when they're together Steve puts on the Top 100 on the radio and sighs a lot. It's different, to listen to radio hits while dancing at a party, even a school party, and to listen to the radio in his free time.

His parents are away for two weeks. It's not the first time they're leaving him alone but it's fresh enough that Steve still thinks it's a blessing, and not a curse, not having parents at home. He falls asleep to Dead Kennedys every night - punk rock is a new thing for Steve but he finds it more and more appealing the more tapes he goes through - and he forgets his parents are supposed to be back on Sunday evening.

His father storms into his room and pulls the recording out of the boombox so fast that the tape is still in, tied up, Steve knows he's never going to be able to listen to _Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables_ , not with the damage it took.

 _It's lowlife music_ , his dad tells him, _no self-respecting man would listen to this trash_ , he tells Steve, _you can't play this shit while talking with a client_. Because it's apparently an indicator of what good music is - if you can't play it during a meeting with a client, it's worthless - his dad listens only to classical music, live or on vinyl.

Steve tells him tattoo parlors have clients too. He gets back-handed.

(It's the first time and the last one but it stings for years.)

Steve's father listens only to classic music, live or on vinyl, and he expects as much from Steve. The shoe box with his rock music collection is taken away and when Steve finds it in the trash bin outside on Monday, it's unsalvagable - the rain ruined the tapes overnight.

Steve is stubborn though. He goes to the record shop and spends his lunch _and_ pocket money to buy his seventeen records again and throws in three pop music tapes so he can put it on a shelf and pretend he's like every other preppy teen in Hawkins. His father raises an eyebrow when he sees Duran Duran, ABBA and Wham! but blames his mom and her girly taste for it. He doesn't destroy the three tapes that are on display and Steve's a bit bitter about it.

Normal fifteen-year-old boys have a stash of porn mags under their mattress but Steve has four rows of rock tapes and a magazine with Mick Jagger on the front cover.

His next slip is five months later. Two weeks before that, Steve sees the local metalhead group gather around the diner he and Tommy frequent when Steve's parents are away. They're all wearing either jean jackets patched with band logos or black leather jackets, band t-shirts or one-colored tank-tops, tight jeans or leather pants. Steve looks at his polo and chinos and nikes and his stupid cardigan and suddenly hates it. He's never paid attention to clothes, he likes pastels well enough, he's pretty sure he looks good in everything. His mom picks up most of his wardrobe and he never really protested.

He wants a band tee. He wants a leather jacket. He wants biker shoes. He wants it.

He buys the t-shirts first. Wears them to school once or twice and no one really pays attention to it, except for the metalheads. Then, he buys the jacket and when he bikes to school, he feels like a god, Scorpions tee under the black leather. People kind of stare, or maybe Steve is paranoid, but Steve preens.

This is, until he gets home. His parents are back and his mom almost has a heart attack. She takes in the motorcycle jacket, his very expensive Perfecto jacket, his pride, and her face falls.

"Hide it before your father sees it," she tells him.

It's the first thing she said to him in three weeks. Steve buries the jacket under the mattress and wears it only at home, while doing homework in his room and while he watches a pirate copy of the Rolling Stones concert in the basement. If some of his father's friends see him in it and say something, Steve would have to say goodbye to all his _rebel_ clothes. This way he can at least have something to himself.

He slips when he's sixteen. He's just got his driving license, the BMW's been waiting for him for a month, bought three days before his parents left and waiting for Steve's license. When he gets the plastic card his parents are not there but they tell him he can drive it without them and he does. He searches for a rock radio station and hums to Motley Crue. He leaves the station for the rest of the week and when his father is finally back and requests Steve to drive him for the first time - _you're a man now, Steven_ \- Steve doesn't think about the radio. It's a disaster.

His father doesn't find his tapes, magazines or concert VHS but he puts Steve in his office for eight hours, puts on classical music, vinyl after vinyl, takes the encyclopedia and tells Steve to write down every piece of information about the person who wrote a particular piece of classical music. It continues for the four days his parents are there.

When they finally leave, there's a Def Leppard concert in Chicago in three days and Steve is going. He's so fed up with everything, he has to go. He puts a Def Leppard tee on, puts on his leather jacket, puts on jeans with holes in his knee, puts on some _eyeliner_. He still wears his nikes, he doesn't have any other boots but maybe no one will notice.

The crowd is mostly looking like him but some people look normal - in flannels or shirts, in sweatshirts. No one wears a polo.

The concert is wild. Steve gets drunk, then high, then drunk again. He's a bit shy around these people but they're nice and funny, open and accepting.

That Def Leppard concert he went to to spite his parents is where Steve kisses his first boy. Well, man. Dave - if it even is his name - is older, more in his thirties than in his twenties, with big hands, wide chest and muscular arms. He wears a wife beater and a jean jacket and dark jeans and kisses Steve mid-laugh. He calls Steve a _twink_ and honestly, Steve should be offended but he says it so close to his ear and his hands are under Steve's tee.

The concert ends, the after-party ends, the night ends, and Steve wishes it could go on forever.

Steve starts going to concerts at least once a month, even if the band is a new one or he doesn't like the music as much. Every other week, he goes to the underground, indie concerts of fresh bands whose members are not much older than him.

He has a jean jacket too, now, and a black vest with patches all over it, and another leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders. There are seven rows of tapes and three VHS and about ten magazines under his mattress.

It's summer of '83 when Steve decides he wants some piercing. Steve's parents are gone for two months and he goes from a concert to a music festival to another concert. He meets Rodriguez, he has Steve's number and calls him up for every concert he goes to, and Steve tags along. The guy has a piece of piercing everywhere - his belly button, his ears, _both_ his eyebrows, his nose, his lip. When Steve kisses him and it's dark and smoke is everywhere, he's a little afraid his hair is gonna catch on one of his rings.

Steve wants a piercing too.

He can't pierce just anything - he's sure his father would rip it out without care, leaving Steve with blood, a scar, and bitterness.

But he remembers Rody's tongue in his mouth and the little bead inside his mouth and the way metal got warmer when they kissed. So he goes to Indianapolis and his tongue is swollen and he avoids speaking for two days but there's a small silver straight barbell in his mouth. Steve likes to show himself his tongue in the mirrors, it's something, he thinks, attractive. Hot.

He likes the way Stacy O'Connor pulls away from him with wide eyes and gets red when Steve obnoxiously _licks his lips_.

(His parents never find out.)

Then Nancy comes and Steve, well, he doesn't stop going to concerts but he doesn't go as often. He listens to the Top 100 on the radio again because Nancy is in the car with Steve every day and the first time she hears Motley Crue she cringes so hard he thinks she swallowed a lemon.

It's easier to talk to her too if he talks about a-ha and Wham! and Duran Duran and not Metallica. He tries, once, to show up for their movie date in AC/DC t-shirt and she lectures him about buying t-shirts just because they look cool.

(Maybe that should have been a sign for Steve, a sign that they shouldn't be together.)

Hargrove is a sore sight, mostly because he's everything Steve hides about himself.

He pulls into the parking space and Steve could recognize the loud music anywhere - _Rock You Like a Hurricane_ by Scorpions. Steve listened to it the night before, while making lunch for school.

Billy drives a muscle car, listens to Scorpions in public, wears jean jackets and his pants are oh so tight. He has leather biker boots Steve still dreams about. The mullet isn't that great but it makes him look like a guitarist from a rock band that started in the 70s and maybe like a few guys Steve has kissed.

It's a picture-perfect but it's just that - a picture. Hargrove opens his mouth, swings his fists and doesn't care in the slightest. He's nothing like people Steve's met on concerts, he's nothing like his Chicago rock family or like Rody and his little sister.

Funny enough, Hargrove is not the reason why Steve goes back to school after Christmas break wearing his spiked leather jacket, new combat boots, a Metallica hoodie, and torn jeans. The reason is, Steve no longer cares, he has nothing to prove to anyone, he has _no one_. No friends, no girlfriend, no social life, he hasn't seen his parents in over three months. He can be himself.

When Dustin enters his car in January, he does a double-take and stares. _Back in Black_ tape is playing, Steve wanted it to be a nostalgic day, and Dustin looks at him as if he is a new kind of demagorgon.

"If you want to say something, just say it," Steve tells him, calmer than ever before. His hands don't shake for the first time since November.

Dustin shrugs and asks him if he can come to the arcade with them - _you're gonna be such a badass, Steve, no one will bother us_. It's that simple.

They pick up Lucas and his reaction is similar and then Steve and his two nerds shake their head in the rhythm of the album title song. When they park under Hawkins High, _You shook me all night long_ is raging through the speakers and it's so loud people turn to the source.

Steve has never felt so free, so himself.

Harrington is the prettiest thing Billy has ever seen.

He's hot, yes, but he's also so adorable. He sees him at the Halloween party, dancing and grinning like a fool and he thinks, _What a dork_ , and it sounds too smitten even in his own head.

Then he notices Wheeler and anger takes over. Billy's never hoped he could have some guy he just met in some awful hick town but it was so unfair he couldn't flirt with him, that Wheeler could do all the mushy stuff and Harrington cared about her and she still threw it away.

Billy is angry because Harrington trails behind her like a lost puppy while Billy is there and he could give him everything Wheeler could and more.

Harrington is so stupid, with his perfect fluffy hair that smells like a meadow, his preppy pastel clothes and nikes, his lean legs and narrow hips. He's so cliche Billy bets he has a stash of Duran Duran tapes in his glove box and hairspray in his trunk.

(It takes Billy less than two months and delivering one beating that will haunt him for the rest of his life to find out there's a stash of hard rock tapes in Steve's glove box and a nailed bat in his trunk and there's no cliche.)

The first day after Christmas break Steve shows looking like one of Billy's wet dreams. Well, it's not a complete truth - he did look like taken out of one of Billy's dreams but it isn't as erotic. In the dream, Steve was drinking tea on the porch of their shared beach hut, observing the sun setting over the ocean. He was wearing Billy's hoodie, too big, showing his collarbone and Billy threw his leather jacket over him when he sat down next to him. He was still shaking, not having pants on, and Billy rubbed his naked thighs with his hand.

Steve who parks at Hawkins High lacks the dorky grin and the jacket he wears is different but he had the same hoodie in Billy's dream - with Metallica's _Kill 'Em AllI_ cover on the front, a bit too big on his silhouette. He looks at Billy with the same wide eyes and he smiles but the smile has a sharp edge, temper that stirs something in Billy's stomach. Billy can still hear the notes of _You shook me all night long_ that came from the BMW's speakers a minute before.

He walks past Billy, not caring for the stares, and his grin is smug when Billy licks his lips, not able to look away for a second. He leans in Billy's space, holds the lapels of his spiked jacket, as if he's fixing a collar of a shirt.

"Like what you see, Hargrove?" he asks, and waggles his tongue, not unlike Billy and, _Jesus H. Christ_ , Billy's face is hot, _Harrington has his tongue pierced_.

He probably refers to the clothes but Billy’s red anyway, can’t breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A repeat of the first note:  
> This fic is the most self-indulgent thing I've written in my life, I've been basically projecting on Steve so much. I wrote it while pissed off at my father and his recent _it's not proper music for a girl_ and _couldn't you buy a dress instead of another leather jacket_ I had to listen to this week during a video call. Honestly, I was just pissed off.
> 
> This may also have a part two if I will feel like it. It's also the first harringrove fic I'm posting, so be gentle.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it or something!


	2. Chapter 2

Steve's life doesn't change when he puts his spiked jacket on in January. But it also does.

The first day, teachers give him looks. Mrs. Blake, who teaches Lit, tells him to take it off - it's more from the shock of seeing pastel polo Steve in a leather jacket and Metallica hoodie and combat boots than anything - Steve's seen her with metalheads before, she didn't have a problem - but when Steve refuses, she sends him to the principal. She gets even more frustrated when Steve asks what reason he should tell the principal, she can't say, _I don't like him in a leather jacket_ , after all. She lets Steve stay in class.

Nancy's reaction, well, Nancy's reaction is a joy. The way her big eyes get even bigger and the way she gasps when she sees him in the cafeteria - it's a joy too, it gives him some insane satisfaction to show her everything she ignored about him during their year of dating, it's not like Steve was hiding from _her_.

She tells him, _it doesn't impress me, Steve, Jonathan and I still-_ and Steve - maybe it's a mean thing to think, maybe he's a mean person - Steve is so glad they broke up because, for someone claiming Steve made everything about himself, claiming Steve was the one at fault, she's so self-centered, like everything around happens because of her. He really is glad.

Jonathan is finding the whole situation funny, or at least that's what his quirked lips say. _I liked that album_ , he comments on Steve's hoodie, and Nancy huffs in exasperation. Jonathan is a cool dude.

In the end, Steve sits with them in the cafeteria and yeah, Jonathan likes more depressing music but honestly, Steve has a weird love for folk punk so he's really not one to talk. Nancy is the third wheel, not understanding a thing.

(The next day, Steve puts on the AC/DC tee she lectured him about. He is a mean person, just a bit.)

People who never talked to him feel entitled to comment on his clothes and say stuff like _you looked better before_ or _don't pretend to be someone else_ or something as stupid as _you're going to end up homeless_. There is one, _one_ , girl from Steve's sophomore music class, that says, _nice jacket, Harrington_.

Steve, quite frankly, doesn't give a shit. He's himself and he will keep being himself no matter what.

Tommy tries to play cool like he didn't give Steve a silent treatment during their sophomore year when Steve said he would take David Bowie over Stevie Nicks any day. _He's queer_ , he told Steve and Steve thought about the blowjob he got last week in the toilet on the concert after-party and replied, _and what_.

Tommy tries to clap Steve on the shoulder but Steve's dealt with handsy people on concerts and moves a bit so Tommy's hand lands on the few spikes that are maybe too sharp. He doesn't try again.

The girls blush when he looks at them and Steve has half a mind to ask one out - it seems pointless though, they just like him in leather and tight pants and will cringe as soon as he puts on his favorite Led Zeppelin tape in the stereo. He waits for Friday and for Rody because, being truthful, Steve missed the feeling of his rings on his mouth the whole time he dated Nancy.

The added bonus is, Hargrove shuts up whenever Steve is in the room for a week. He is so taken aback by Steve he just stares with his mouth open and it makes Steve giggle every damn time.

 _Harrington_ , he tries a few times but then Steve licks his lips in _that_ way and he shuts up, sputtering. It's even funnier.

The lil' nerds are not as weird about it as everyone else but still a bit weird. That's basically their tag line though, being weird, so Steve doesn't mind.

Dustin and Lucas are overexcited because, apparently, the rest of the nerd squad didn't believe them when they said Steve looks like a _badass rockstar_ \- their words, not Steve's, personally, he feels normal for the first time since he was thirteen.

Will stands frozen on the sidewalk for longer than others, gaping at Steve and when Steve asks him, _is there a problem, buddy_ , his face looks awfully red and he squeals and doesn't look at Steve the whole day, getting red as soon as he glances at Steve and Steve catches his gaze.

(Steve may or may not know why. He was as red-faced as Will is, at that Def Leppard concert in '83 while watching Dave.)

Max looks skeptically at him, unimpressed and Steve, to be honest, fidgets. El might have mind powers but she's sweet like a flower while Max could eat every guy alive.

"Are you going to be an asshole now too?" she asks and the _too_ must refer to her brother.

"Would I give you a ride out of the kindness of my heart if I was?"

And yeah, Hargrove gives a bad name to his rock family, metalheads and punks, in general, aren't that different from hippies when it comes to mindset - chilled and laid back - just a bit more, ehm, _rebellious._ All of Steve's concert friends are big softies.

Max apparently loves the music more than she admits because when Steve allows her to choose the tape from his new shoebox, packed in his glove box, her eyes brighten up. She chooses _Pyromania_ by Def Leppard and when _Billy's Got A Gun_ comes in, Steve snickers at her offended face.

Mike just narrows his eyes and makes a face that says, _who cares_ , and tells Steve to hurry up because El is waiting for them.

And yes, sweet like a flower El looks at Steve, awed, and says, _bitchin'._

 _Bitchin',_ Steve laughs back.

(Keith, who is apparently the person bothering them, takes a glance at Steve's jacket and combat boots and turns around. Dustin can't stop gushing.)

There's an uncomfortable moment when Steve drives Dustin home and his mom is waiting, like she always is when Steve is supposed to eat dinner with them.

Steve has half a mind to get back to his car before another adult in his life tells him he's stupid because he falls asleep to Dead Kennedys and not Vivaldi.

Mrs. Henderson takes Steve in and frowns and Dustin looks between the two of them, worried.

Then she reaches for the lapel of Steve's jacket and tells him, _it doesn't really suit the winter, I could line it with fur for you, honey_. Steve kind of wants to cry. (Dustin is so lucky.)

Steve has a very strange encounter with Hopper the next day. It's late, dark for a couple of hours already, but Steve talked on the phone with Rody a bit too long - about the concert, he still can't believe he's going to see Aerosmith live, it sounds insane to Steve - and he has no food for breakfast so he goes to Hawkins' only twenty-four-seven store and buys Pop-Tarts and Eggos in every flavor available.

Steve isn't even half-way down the street to the parking lot he left his car at when Hopper catches up to him.

 _Kid, I know Mrs. Blansky is annoying but you can't throw eggs at her house every week_ , is what Hop spits out at him.

Steve turns around, showing him his bag and saying something along the lines of, _I just wanted some Pop-Tarts, man._

Hopper looks at his jacket - this time the plain black leather Perfecto, his first - at his untied combat boots, at the sweater he got as a joke for Christmas '83 - it looks like a Christmas sweater but it's black and instead of reindeer patterns, there are skulls with Santa Claus hats - and Steve can see the level of being fed up raising in Hopper's eyes.

"Not another one," he blurts out and Steve laughs at him.

(He's been laughing more and more, he notices, since he stopped caring about other people's opinion.)

Apparently, some punk's been throwing eggs at houses, dressed similarly to Steve and someone called in when Steve left his car.

Hopper manages to go from _you're not throwing eggs at anything, are you_ to _I need a babysitter, I don't trust that Wheeler kid, he is not sneaking into my house._

(And Steve is still a babysitter, even though kids listen to Motorhead while he drives them and he sits in Hopper's living room in ripped jeans and worn-out Led Zeppelin t-shirt.)

Friday is Steve's happiest day of the week. The rumors die down - people realize Steve is not going to go back to pastel polos - and everyone fucks off.

(Hargrove hasn't stopped staring and Steve kind of thinks it means something.)

Rody is standing in front of Steve's BMW when Steve finishes school. He is grinning and he has one more lip ring than Steve remembers him having in October.

(He can't wait to taste it.)

People stare at him but he's never been afraid of the stares, not like Steve. He sits down on the hood and opens his arms for Steve like he always does. Steve hugs him, gets wrapped up in big arms. He and Lola live in Indianapolis and most of the time they meet at the gas station outside of Hawkins before going to a concert but today, hearing the news about Steve's change, Rody said Lola would leave him at Steve's school.

He whispers in Steve's ear - _looking good, darling_ \- and they have to let go because they are in public.

Steve asks, _do you have a new tattoo_ , because really, it sticks out from the collar of his unbuttoned shirts.

Rody, with the biggest grin, takes off his jacket and unbuttons his shirt completely. In January. Steve's friends are all crazy like that but he loves it.

He's standing half-naked in January, a trail of roses from the rim of his pants to his neck is on display for Steve and the whole Hawkins High, and his belly button and collarbone piercing, metal beads, look cold. He's still laughing and Steve is laughing with him.

Steve makes him dress again before he gets frostbite and they smoke, sitting on the BMW's hood.

(Steve doesn't notice Billy watching them but Rody does and he tells Steve, _I've seen that look before_ , and he teases Steve when Steve tells him how Hargrove's been behaving, _your tongue, huh, can't say I'm surprised_.)

The concert is amazing. Steve is drunk and bruised from the mosh pit and there are hickeys on his neck and hips. Aerosmith is even better live and Steve gets piggybacked to the front of the stage. Steve spends the night smelling like beer and sweat and their small group is there and Steve _missed it so much_.

Harrington is unbearable. He looks better and better with passing days and Billy just _can't_.

It's not a one-day thing. He comes every day with loud music suffocating his car, always something heavy and familiar and he has another black leather jacket, slightly bigger, and wears silky black shirts and band tees and vests and Billy _just can't._

The worst part is, he's still adorable. When he doesn't know Billy is watching, he's a dork - he takes Max and her nerd herd places, helps some girl carry books back to the library, trips over his legs when he gets up in Calc, he grins like a fool at Byers, he rolls his pretty eyes at people and _he's still a dork_.

But then, as soon as he is closer to Billy, it's like he becomes sharper, bolder and his moves are smooth. He still has big doe eyes but the jeans hug him in all the right places, each of his jackets and vests is oversized - it shouldn't make him hotter but it does.

He is in the same room as Billy and sees him watching and he smirks, his face relaxed and confident, he licks his lips and Billy can only think about that _pierced_ tongue so his face gets red.

He tries, he really does, comment somehow on his clothing choice or his music choice but he looks too good and the music is too good. He tries for any kind of snippy comment and then Harrington's smirk gets bigger and he licks his lips too slow and too obnoxiously for it to be coincidental - Billy can see the barbell in the middle of his tongue.

When Harrington is in the same room, Billy now loses the ability to flirt and be smooth - he walks into a trash can when he sees Harrington in a black cut-off crop top, he has beauty marks over his hips. It's not like Billy can really flirt with him anyway, the rock scene has always been a bit gay but Harrington probably isn't.

Then Friday happens and Billy is pretty fucking sure Harrington is at least a bit gay. Billy doesn't know who this guy is but he _knows_ his hand is on Harrington's ass. He _knows_ because if he was the one sitting the way they are, Billy's hand would be on Harrington's ass too.

The guy is covered in piercing, so much piercing it's the first thing anyone could notice - _is this what Harrington is into, huh_ \- and he's wearing spiked jacket and black shirt, unbuttoned even more than Billy's red, he's wearing uncomfortable leather pants - Billy knows from experience - and the piercing is still the most eye-catching thing about him.

They are sitting on the hood of Harrington's BMW and their thighs are touching and the guy is leaning on his arms, one of his hands is strategically placed behind Harrington's back - on Harrington's ass - and he has a smug grin on his face, directed at Harrington's red cheeks - Harrington smiles like the dork he is.

They are sharing one cigarette. (Billy smokes his own cigarette and glares.)

Harrington is still so stupid, with his fluffy hair that smells like a meadow, his fucking band tees and combat boots, his lean legs and narrow hips in those tight jeans. He's so stupid Billy can't stop looking at him on Monday.

They're both late for basketball practice and Steve that walks into the locker room - where Billy is alone, putting on his shorts - is obviously hangover - not that it makes him less attractive - and, fuck, he is wearing _leather pants_.

Leather. Pants.

He turns to Billy - he has a brand new Aerosmith tee on, white, _a tour tee_ , Billy notices when he takes off his jacket - and he gives Billy a smug grin. His eyes move over Billy's naked chest - maybe Billy puffs out a bit at that - and waggles his tongue. Billy _does not_ imagine how that tongue would feel on his skin.

Billy's face is hot, yes, he wants to hide behind his hands - like in fucking middle school again - but he takes a step closer to Harrington.

It may have been the hickeys on Harrington's neck, ones that Billy has not placed there. It may have been that rosy color on Harrington's cheeks. It may have been the way leather sits on Harrington's thighs. It may have been the way Harrington's eyes get bigger when he looks at Billy. It makes Billy move nonetheless.

 _Harrington_ that leaves his mouth is breathless but it forces a wider grin on Harrington's face.

And he corrects Billy - _Steve, my name is Steve_ \- licking his lips and he never averts his gaze, an electric charge taking over the small space between them.

He wants to feel that tongue in his mouth.

Steve doesn't know what he's doing but Billy's hands on his hips are warm and his breath is hot and his tongue quivers when Steve's barbell touches the roof of his mouth. His shoulders are broad, cornering Steve and he holds onto Steve's body like a starving man. He moans and pins Steve harder into the lockers and Steve _loves it_.

Steve has a type when it comes to men - big, strong, a bit dangerous, a bit crazy, maybe older, definitely eager to make out with the sound of Bad Company in the background.

Somehow, while Billy is putting bruises on his neck on the backseat of Steve's BMW and is trying to slide his palms into Steve's skin-tight pants, Steve doesn't think he will mind if Steve puts Bad Company's first album in the tape deck.

Hargrove is Steve's type.

(Maybe that's why he asks him, _wanna go to a gig on Wednesday, Hargrove_ , while Billy trails lazy kisses, sucks on the skin around Steve's ribs.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _If you see any mistakes, typos or other annoying things, do tell me. English is only my second language and words tend to be messed up by me._
> 
> So, this has three parts now.
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos! Hope you liked it!


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